LogFAQs > #886531106

LordRazziel posted...

I keep hearing multi-vitamins don't actually work.
Is there anything that works? What about Soylent
@MrPeppers
@daftpunk_mk5
@Darkman124

It's not so much that they dont work, it's that they havent been proven to have a benefit to the general population.
There have been several studies but they all have caveats. Here is a commonly cited review article discussing the evidence.
http://annals.org/aim/article/1767855/vitamin-mineral-supplements-primary-prevention-cardiovascular-disease-cancer-updated-systematic

Essentially, in vary large trials looking at cancer and heart disease, there was no benefit of vitamins vs placebo. There was a study that looked at ~6000 doctors taking multivitamins and tested their cognitive function which found no benefit, but those were doctors who were high functioning and probably ate well to begin with.

But in terms of just making you feel better and be more energized? That really hasnt been studied in a way that can be applied to the average person. Also, it's pretty much agreed that they dont have a benefit in people eating a healthy diet, but, again, we dont know if theres a benefit for, say, a neckbeard who lives off of fast food. A lot of people do take them to have a safety net and a lot of doctors do recommend them for patients, even though it's a question that hasnt really been answered definitively.

That said, the one vitamin that has been found to be beneficial is vitamin D. Most Americans dont get enough due to being inside most of the day and the recent consensus is that FDA recommendations are too low. So that likely is worth taking.
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